Lesson 1 — How Did We Get Our English Bible?
Before you can interpret the Bible, it helps to know how it got into your hands.
Walk into a bookstore or scroll an online shop and you’ll find dozens of Bibles staring back at you—study editions, devotional editions, a wall of three-letter abbreviations. It’s enough to make a simple purchase feel overwhelming. This lesson clears the fog.
We’ll trace the remarkable journey Scripture took to reach modern English: from inspired authors, through centuries of hand-copied manuscripts, to the careful work of scholars who weigh those copies to recover the original wording. Then we’ll survey the English translations themselves—from Wycliffe and Tyndale, who risked their lives so ordinary people could read God’s Word, to the King James Version and the many translations we use today.
Along the way you’ll learn the difference between a translation and the marketing packaging publishers wrap around it, why no two languages line up word-for-word, and how the two main translation philosophies—formal (“word-for-word”) and functional (“thought-for-thought”)—shape what you read.
In this lesson you’ll learn to:
- Describe how the Bible moved from original authors to your English copy
- Explain what textual criticism is and why it matters
- Tell the difference between a translation and a paraphrase
- Choose a translation that fits your purpose, whether for study, devotion, or reading aloud
Watch the video below, then work through the assignments at the end.